Contents

Background

These rods were first seen being used by Nagato, the leader of Akatsuki. They were embedded into the bodies of his Six Paths of Pain which allowed him to manipulate their bodies by transmitting his chakra to them from the rods which had been embedded into his own body by the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path during his battle with Hanzō of the Salamander after using the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path technique. Nagato used these not only for this supplementary purpose but also as weapons which when used to pierce the enemy, disrupted their chakra flow by injecting them with his own.[2] Through this means he also attempted to take control of a living body.[3] Originally used by Madara Uchiha, he imbued his will into at least one of these rods which he left protruding from the navel of the Hashirama's living clone.[1] During the process of saving Obito Uchiha's life as well, Madara inserted some of these rods into his body, which he later used as a fail safe attempt to revive himself with the Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique.[4][5][6] The results of which covers the target's body in black matter.[5] Obito Uchiha later made his first use of them, by using the giant stakes, to incapacitate larger targets or bombard opponents with overwhelming attacks.

Overview

Each variation of the charka receiver allows the user to transmit their chakra across vast distances. According to Shizune, these receivers act as high-frequency chakra demodulators, which become appreciably warm to the touch whilst currently receiving chakra.[7] They possess incredible durability, damaging every scalpel Shizune used to extract just a small sample during her autopsy of the first Animal Path,[8] and even displaying some resistance when struck by Naruto's Rasengan.[9] When employed offensively, they have shown to be capable of easily piercing through their target,[10] even if the later is a tailed beast.[11]

Variation

Chakra Receiver Rods

The rods transmitting chakra.

Nagato upon summoning the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path during his confrontation with Hanzō of the Salamander was pierced by several of these all of which originated from the navel of the statue.[12] From there, he incorporated their use in his Six Paths of Pain technique, where he implanted the receivers into a number of corpses at various points along their body, much like piercings. Doing so allowed him to transmit his chakra into the bodies and control them remotely as if they were his own, while bestowing each with certain abilities that Nagato wielded thanks to his Rinnegan. The many animals summoned through the Animal Path technique also had a number of these body piercings, suggesting that Nagato controlled them in a similar manner.[13] When using the Summoning: Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, several of these receivers were pierced into Nagato's back in order to allow him to transfer his chakra to the statue and in doing so, manipulate it.[14]

Chakra Disruption Blade

The rod being used offensively.

These chakra disruption blades are the bladed versions of the chakra receivers. Nagato was able to store and extend the blades as needed from both arms of any Path, at various length. Pain can also detach the blade from the arms when requiring to use several of them,[17] or to be thrown as spears.[18] These blades disrupt the chakra of its victim, impeding their movements. When a victim is stabbed by the blades, the Rinnegan appears in their mind.[19][20] These blades are very sharp, as they were able to pierce the skin of Sage Mode users.[10]

The effect of being stabbed with the blade.

Though the blades are made from durable material, they can be broken with enough force.[21] However, due to being made of the same material as the chakra receivers are, they are durable enough to wear down metal blades such as scalpels without any trouble.[8] Not only that, these blades are strong enough to deflect Blaze Release: Susanoo Kagutsuchi arrows despite them being made of Amaterasu.[22]

Nagato, due to being immobile, can fire his chakra disruption blades from his mechanical seat, which then allows him to control the victims like one of the paths due to the close proximity between each other. Naruto was able to resist Nagato's influence with the help of both Sage Mode and the Nine-Tails chakra.[23]

Chakra Receiver Stakes

These stakes greatly differ in size and design. However, not unlike the other variations, the user is capable of channeling their chakra through it. During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Obito Uchiha employed these against Naruto Uzumaki and Killer B. He keeps them stored in another dimension, and readily deployed them when desired. When applied with enough force, they can pierce the flesh of fully transformed tailed beasts. Also like the simpler chakra receiver, the user can channel their chakra into the stakes to manifest chakra chains, with which he is capable of binding the powers of a tailed beast.[11]

Other Media

In Naruto Shippūden: Shinobi Rumble, Pain has a technique called "Black Needle Stab" (黒針突, Kokushintō), in which he simply dashes at the opponent and stabs them with the blade variant, causing their controls to become temporarily reversed; an enhanced "Full Throttle" version is also available, called "Black Needle Stab: Destructive Flash" (黒針突・滅閃, Kokushintō: Metsusen). As no specific name was given for these weapons in the manga, this may imply that they are officially known as "Black Needles" (黒針, Kokushin).

Trivia

The main difference between the simple chakra receivers and their bladed version, is that the receivers begin transmitting chakra to his Six Paths of Pain when they are activated.[24] Nagato also seemingly went to some lengths to retrieve them.[25][26] These on the other hand, are used in battle and only transmits chakra when Nagato wants.[27]

It has been shown that the receivers inserted in the reincarnated jinchūriki move position when they go through a transformation and get bigger. As seen with Rōshi, he transformed into Son Gokū's full form. It moved from the chest, up to its neck.[28]